suitability. Durum has high protein, is hard but has weak gluten because one of the gluten forming proteins is in short supply in the grain. If you over hydrate it, it will spread instead of lift, if you over ferment it or over proof it, which is much easier to do with durum since it is so fast, it will break down.
What makes High Gluten flour is that it is milled from spring hard red wheat grown in the Pacific Northwest and other Northern climates in N America, instead of hard red winter wheat grown in the more warm climes. Even though both kinds of wheat are high in protein at about the same levels, the hard spring red has more of 2 gluten forming proteins so it is preferred for babels and pizza and some very hard rolls.
Artisan style breads don't require this much gluten and too much gluten actually gets in the way, producing an inferior crumb with too much elasticity in the diough. Some breads like baguettes have traditionally been made with very low[ protein white wheat flours with protein in the 10% range where the cheapest AP store brand flour might be the best choice. For my bread making, when using white flour, I prefer LaFama AP from Mexico at 11.2% protein has plenty of gluten - even KA AP is too high a protein for me and the crumb isn't as good in the finished bread.
I do use HG flour in many whole grain recipes where the grains being used are very low in gluten or have nine. It makes for a better loaf height wise. I try to match the white flour, if there is any in the mix, to the task at hand without over killing the gluten.
I can venture some white (non-whole) wheat guesses to those breads you listed:
Ciabatta - APF100, APF75+BF25 Free-form - BF100, BF70+APF30 Bagette - APF100, APF75+BF25 Boule, Country-type loafs - would fall into freeform for me, so same I guess
...or, at least that's where I would begin (granted some whole grain in most of those loaves would be nice)
That is my (novice) understanding, but I'm sure other folks have a better grasp on this than I do right now. More APF should give a softer crumb, thinner/softer crust, and have sufficient strength for the loaves. I would start with the APF/BF mix, and then try an all APF if the mix dictated the need (although not with the APF I am currently working through :D).
Ken Forkish and most of the artisan bakeries here in Portland use Shepherd's Grain all-purpose. I went to the Cash and Carry Restaurant store to buy some yesterday but all they had were 50lb bags of their high gluten. Not what I wanted, to much for storage and I just wanted AP. So I continued on to my local grocery thinking I would buy Bob's Red Mill. But I noticed that the Fisher company had AP flour and it had the Shepherd's grain logo on it. Fisher is a Seattle company that makes Scone mixes, used to have their own flour mill but that has long been closed. I've googled and haven't seen it offered on line. I think Whole Foods and stores like that would be the most likely.
KA AP flour works perfectly well for most breads - even their bread flour is overkill most of the time in my book.
Cool, thanks for the heads up!
FLOUR PROTEIN BY TYPES AND BRANDS (retail flour):
I did a lot of Googling to put this list together.
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FLOUR PROTEIN BY TYPES AND BRANDS (retail flour):
.
CAKE FLOUR - 7% to 9.4% protein
Best Use: cakes, blending with national brands all-purpose flour to make pastry flour or Southern flour substitute.
-King Arthur Queen Guinevere Cake Flour, 7.0%
-King Arthur Unbleached Cake Flour Blend, 9.4%
-Pillsbury Softasilk Bleached Cake Flour, 6.9%
-Presto Self Rising Cake Flour, 7.4%
-Swans Down Bleached Cake Flour, 7.1%
.
PASTRY FLOUR - 8 to 9% protein
Best Use: biscuits, cookies, pastries, pancakes, pie crusts, waffles.
-King Arthur Unbleached Pastry Flour, 8%
-King Arthur Whole Wheat Pastry Flour, 9%
.
ALL-PURPOSE FLOUR, SOUTHERN - 8 to 9% protein
Best Use: biscuits, cookies, muffins, pancakes, pie crusts, quick breads, waffles.
-Martha White Bleached All-Purpose Flour, 9%
-White Lily Bleached All-Purpose Flour, 8 to 9%
.
SELF-RISING FLOUR (flour, baking powder, salt) - 8 to 10.5% protein
Best Use: biscuits, cookies, pancakes, muffins, quick breads, waffles.
-Gold Medal Bleached Self-Rising Flour, 10.5%
-King Arthur Unbleached Self-Rising Flour, 8.5%
-Martha White Bleached Self-Rising Flour, 9.4%
-Pillsbury Best Bleached Self-Rising Flour, 9.7%
-Presto Self Rising Cake Flour, 7.4%
-White Lily Bleached Self-Rising Flour, 8 to 9%
.
ALL PURPOSE BAKING MIXES (flour, shortening, baking powder, sugar, salt) - 6.25 to 12.5% protien
Best Use: biscuits, cookies, coffee cakes, pancakes, quick breads, pastry, waffles
-Arrowhead Mills All Purpose Baking Mix, 12.5%
-Bisquick Original Baking Mix, 7.5%
-Jiffy All Purpose Baking Mix, 6.25%
-King Arthur Flour All Purpose Baking Mix, 10%
-Pioneer Original Baking Mix, 7.5%
.
INSTANT FLOUR 10.5 to 12.6% protein
Best Use: thicken gravies, sauces, and soups without lumps.
-Gold Medal Wondra Quick Mixing Flour, 10.5%
-Pillsbury Best Shake & Blend Flour, 12.6%
.
ALL-PURPOSE FLOUR, BLEACHED & UNBLEACHED, NATIONAL BRANDS - 10 to 11.5% protein
Best Use: makes average biscuits, cookies, muffins, pancakes, pie crusts, pizza crusts, quick breads, waffles, yeast breads.
-Gold Medal All-Purpose Flour, 10.5%
-Pillsbury Best All-Purpose Flour, 10 to 11.5%
-Pioneer All-Purpose Flour, 10%
-White Wings All-Purpose Flour, 10%
.
ALL-PURPOSE FLOUR, NORTHERN, BLEACHED & UNBLEACHED - 11.5 to 12% protein
Best Use: cream puffs, puff pastry, yeast breads, pizza crusts.
-Heckers and Ceresota All-Purpose Flour, 11.5 to 11.9 %
-King Arthur All-Purpose Flour, 11.7%
-Robin Hood All-Purpose Flour, 12.0%
.
BREAD FLOUR - 12 to 13.3% protein
Best Use: traditional yeast breads, bread machine, pizza crusts, pasta.
-Gold Medal Better For Bread, 12%
-King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour, 12.7%
-Pillsbury Best Bread Flour, 12.9%
-White Lily Unbleached Bread Flour, 11.7%
.
DURUM WHEAT (Semolina) 13 to 13.5% protein
Best Use: Pasta.
-Hodgson Mill Golden Semolina & Extra Fancy Durum Pasta Flour, 13.3%
-King Arthur Extra Fancy Durum Flour, 13.3%
.
WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR - 12.9 to 14% protein
Best Use: hearth breads, blending with other flours.
-Gold Medal Whole Wheat Flour, 13.3%
-King Arthur 100% Whole Wheat Flour, 14%
-King Arthur 100% White Whole Wheat Flour, 14%
-Pillsbury Best Whole Wheat Flour, 12.9%
.
HIGH-GLUTEN FLOUR 14 to 15% protein
Best Use: bagels, pizza crusts, blending with other flours.
-King Arthur Organic Hi-Gluten Flour, 14%
-King Arthur Sir Lancelot Unbleached Hi-Gluten Flour, 14.2%
.
VITAL WHEAT GLUTEN FLOUR, Breadmaking Supplement - 65 to 77% protein
Best Use: Added to raise gluten. Adds extra gluten to low-gluten whole grain flours, such as rye, oat, teff, spelt, or buckwheat.
-Arrowhead Mills Vital Wheat Gluten Flour, 65.0%
-Bob's Red Mill Vital Wheat Gluten Flour, 75.0%
-Gillco Vital Wheat Gluten Flour, 75.0%
-Hodgson Mill Vital Wheat Gluten Flour, 66.6%
-King Arthur Vital Wheat Gluten Flour, 77.8%
.
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Retail Flour Companies - Brands:
-Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods, Milwaukie, Oregon -Bob's Red Mill
-C.H. Guenther & Son Inc, San Antonio, Texas - Pioneer Flour, Pioneer Baking Mix, White Wings Flour
-General Mills Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota - Bisquick, Gold Medal Flour, (sold US Pillsbury Flour , retains Pillsbury frozen goods)
-Hain Celestial Group Inc, Boulder, Colorado - Arrowhead Mills
-J.M. Smucker Company, Orrville, Ohio - Martha White Flour, Pillsbury Flour, Robin Hood Flour, White Lily Flour
-King Arthur Flour Company, Norwich, Vermont - King Arthur Flour
-Reily Foods Company, New Orleans, Louisiana - Swan's Down Cake Flour, Presto Self Rising Cake Flour
-Uhlmann Company, Kansas City, Missouri - Heckers Flour, Ceresota Flour
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/17045/protein-content-flour
suitability. Durum has high protein, is hard but has weak gluten because one of the gluten forming proteins is in short supply in the grain. If you over hydrate it, it will spread instead of lift, if you over ferment it or over proof it, which is much easier to do with durum since it is so fast, it will break down.
What makes High Gluten flour is that it is milled from spring hard red wheat grown in the Pacific Northwest and other Northern climates in N America, instead of hard red winter wheat grown in the more warm climes. Even though both kinds of wheat are high in protein at about the same levels, the hard spring red has more of 2 gluten forming proteins so it is preferred for babels and pizza and some very hard rolls.
Artisan style breads don't require this much gluten and too much gluten actually gets in the way, producing an inferior crumb with too much elasticity in the diough. Some breads like baguettes have traditionally been made with very low[ protein white wheat flours with protein in the 10% range where the cheapest AP store brand flour might be the best choice. For my bread making, when using white flour, I prefer LaFama AP from Mexico at 11.2% protein has plenty of gluten - even KA AP is too high a protein for me and the crumb isn't as good in the finished bread.
I do use HG flour in many whole grain recipes where the grains being used are very low in gluten or have nine. It makes for a better loaf height wise. I try to match the white flour, if there is any in the mix, to the task at hand without over killing the gluten.
What flour(s) would be better choices for 'non-wheat' artisinal breads?
Example:
Ciabatta
Country-type loafs
Free-form
Bagette
Boule
etc, etc, etc
Do you really mean "non-wheat" or "non-whole wheat"? Are you looking for gluten-free formulas?
WHEAT
I can venture some white (non-whole) wheat guesses to those breads you listed:
Ciabatta - APF100, APF75+BF25
Free-form - BF100, BF70+APF30
Bagette - APF100, APF75+BF25
Boule, Country-type loafs - would fall into freeform for me, so same I guess
...or, at least that's where I would begin (granted some whole grain in most of those loaves would be nice)
does the ciabatta not need the protein structure, and that is why you can use apf?
That is my (novice) understanding, but I'm sure other folks have a better grasp on this than I do right now. More APF should give a softer crumb, thinner/softer crust, and have sufficient strength for the loaves. I would start with the APF/BF mix, and then try an all APF if the mix dictated the need (although not with the APF I am currently working through :D).
Ken Forkish and most of the artisan bakeries here in Portland use Shepherd's Grain all-purpose. I went to the Cash and Carry Restaurant store to buy some yesterday but all they had were 50lb bags of their high gluten. Not what I wanted, to much for storage and I just wanted AP. So I continued on to my local grocery thinking I would buy Bob's Red Mill. But I noticed that the Fisher company had AP flour and it had the Shepherd's grain logo on it. Fisher is a Seattle company that makes Scone mixes, used to have their own flour mill but that has long been closed. I've googled and haven't seen it offered on line. I think Whole Foods and stores like that would be the most likely.